Dear Friends,
How much I hoped to be able to write personally to each one of you at the end of this year! But lack of time does not allow me to do so, hence this printed words.
As 2019 is drawing to a close, I want to let you know my profound gratitude for your help and support during the sad crisis that brought about my hastened departure from Saint Michael’s School with Sr Maria Salome. During those difficult days and for the weeks and months following them, you have provided us with spiritual, material, logistic and financial support in a way that was altogether amazing and unsurprising: amazing by its generosity and constancy, unsurprising because it was the way that was to be expected from hearts profoundly united to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord by divine charity, and from true children of Mary Immaculate. That your reward will be commensurate with your generosity is beyond question, and we pray daily and fervently to Our Lady and Saint Joseph for the salvation of your dear souls and the salvation of your beloved ones in return for your charity.
For the benefit of those of you who have not heard about us since April, I will briefly sum up the development of events after we had left the school.
Father King had assured us in the very last hours of our stay at Saint Michael’s School that he would take us “in sanctuary” at Southport (Merseyside) and, indeed, he had organised everything for us. Fervent parishioners of his Saint Gregory’s Mission, parents of a large family, accepted most generously to put us up in bedrooms vacated by their older children and to look after us, which they did with the utmost charity, day in day out, during three months. Meanwhile Sister Maria Salome, who is a Thai citizen, was applying for a French long stay visa, as, from the outset, we had hoped to be able to join the Society of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary (SAJM), erected by Bishop Faure, in order to simply continue our oblate Sisters life in the service of priests faithful to the aims that Archbishop Lefebvre had given to the SSPX. Sister was denied the visa by the French government on the basis that “there is a suspicion that the visa will be used for illicit purposes…”.
We decided that Sister should attempt applying for British citizenship, as she qualified for it after eleven years spent in the UK. With a British passport, she would be able to travel to France and stay there for extended periods. It was time for us to move out of our benefactors’ house, as we did not know how long the naturalisation process would take. We rented therefore a flat a few streets down the road: it was very quiet and secluded and the landlord proved to be a very reliable and helpful gentleman.
On 1st June we became officially novices in the SAJM. We have kept the statutes as they were written for the oblate Sisters of the SSPX by Archbishop Lefebvre, with a couple of modifications. In particular, we are now wearing a blue apron at all times except at prayer time. This was the fruit of much reflexion and prayer about the way we should distinguish ourselves from the SSPX oblate Sisters. The blue apron reminds us constantly that our vocation is to serve the priests as Our Blessed Lady did, and that we have to put on her virtues if we are to serve well. Archbishop Lefebvre insisted on the Marian spirituality of the oblate Sisters in their statutes; in particular it is remarkable that he made the daily recitation of the fifteen decades of the Rosary a highly recommended practice for us.
On 24th June the lengthy naturalisation application was ready, and within five weeks of sending it out, the naturalisation was granted! Our gratitude towards Almighty God was indescribable.
Not without a little apprehension on Sister’s side because it was going to be a totally new experience for her, and not without sadness for both of us at having to sever our links with the unforgettable St Gregory’s Mission community, Sister Maria Salome and I left our Southport sanctuary respectively in September and October to join the SAJM seminary in Avrillé (Maine-et-Loire, France) which is under the leadership of our Superior General, H. E. Bishop Faure.
The seminary building being too small to accommodate us, we have been invited – again! by generous faithful to live under their welcoming roof, just a few minutes by car from the seminary where we go daily for Holy Mass, work and the Rosary. The proximity of the Dominican friary is, of course, an added bonus to our already incredibly blessed life. The awesome Christmas liturgy (Matins, solemn High Mass and Lauds) at the friary, which lasted from 21:30 to 02:00, will remain imprinted in our souls for a long time.
The next – and hopefully last, stage of our wanderings will be entering in the new seminary building, when Almighty God deems fit to provide one. Only then will we be able to consider welcoming vocations for the beautiful oblate Sisters’ life. May we entrust this intention to your good prayers?
To each of you we wish, from the bottom of our deeply grateful hearts, a happy Christmas tide and every blessing on your households on the Feast of the Epiphany. May Our Blessed Lady keep you under Her motherly protection!
United in prayer and adoration of Our New-Born Saviour,
Sr Mary-Elizabeth
Topic: SAJM Oblates: Letter to Friends and Benefactors (Read 524 times)